Coventry man ‘picks’ Ricoh Arena

Coventry’s Shaminder Singh, famous for recreating iconic sporting venues out of toothpicks, has unveiled his latest model – a miniature version of the Ricoh Arena using 45,000 toothpicks.

It took the forklift driver around 900 hours over a six-month period – equivalent to five hours a day every day – to create the model, which has been constructed by mainly using toothpicks and super glue.

Other materials used included plastic for the roof, electrics and lighting for the floodlights, and varnish. The signs were also made and imported from India.

Singh has hit the headlines in the past for his bold reconstructions of Wimbledon’s Centre Court, Old Trafford and a cricket stadium.

Impressed by what he saw, Lord Mayor of Coventry, Councillor Tony Skipper, approached Singh last year to ask if he would recreate the Ricoh Arena in time for the Lord Mayor’s Charity Fundraising Dinner for Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice, which is also a charity partner of Wasps.

“I drive past the Ricoh Arena every day on my way to work and I think it’s a beautiful stadium. I’m a keen sportsman, so I was more than happy to make this model,” said Singh. “The time-consuming part when creating models such as these is getting the shape of the building as accurate as possible, as I had to study satellite images in great detail and cut each toothpick to various lengths to achieve this.

“I’m hoping to make more models in the future which can be auctioned off for charity – including the reproduction of some prestigious cars.”

Singh also received support during the build from Sikh Union Coventry, Coventry Mercia Lions Club and Coventry City Council.

The miniature Ricoh Arena model now resides at the real-life Ricoh Arena for visitors to admire after the Lord Mayor decided to donate the model to Nick Eastwood, the chief executive of Ricoh Arena and Wasps.

Eastwood commented: ““To say thank you for his hard work, we have given Shaminder two Wasps season memberships for the 2018/19 season.”